The former director of the Grand Theft Auto series, Navid Khonsari, is working on a new game that will explore Iran's Islamic Revolution. The game is called 1979 and will be set in an open world where protagonists can make moral choices that affect what is going on around him. Khonsari, who worked on Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas, spoke to CNN about his plans for the game recently and why it is important to him. One of the core reasons is because he barely escaped it; his family managed to escape to Canada at the start of the revolution.

"I'm interested in having good and evil within the same character," Khonsari said in an interview with CNN. "I think that's true to life, and I think you can design a game around that, too."

1979 will take place in an open world and give the player control over multiple protagonists with different abilities. Over the course of the game, players will engage in shootouts, solve puzzles, drive vehicles, use diplomacy, and trade for supplies.

Khonsari is prepared for lots of criticism from every corner of the earth - after all, a game about revolution in a country such as Iran will present history in a light that might not be flattering to a lot of people with certain political persuasions..

"Iranians are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'promotes American imperialists going in and shooting Iranians," said Khonsari. "Americans are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'glorifies Islamic fundamentalism,' or something. I'm not going to please everyone, and the point of the game isn't to do that."

"Iranians are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'promotes American imperialists going in and shooting Iranians," said Khonsari. "Americans are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'glorifies Islamic fundamentalism,' or something. I'm not going to please everyone, and the point of the game isn't to do that."

How on earth can you get a publishing deal for a game like this?! :)

I suppose the Rockstar connection is what will make the difference - that and if it's anything like the GTA series then it will certainly be satirical, whether subtly or overtly, just like GTA towards American consumerism.

Given that Western audiences are the key demographic to please for solid levels of sales (and of that the US market is the most prominent), I imagine it'll lean more to Western tastes, but a middle ground would be refreshing, even if it's just informing the audience about the revolution and its background.

"Khonsari is prepared for lots of criticism from every corner of the earth - after all, a game about revolution in a country such as Iran will present history in a light that might not be flattering to a lot of people with certain political persuasions."

What's more likely to happen is that it'll present history in an entirely inaccurate way.

The game will be controversial for those in a political position anyway, but I don't think it's going to be the exact replication of the revolution movement going on in Iran today. It is bound to exaggerate and skip things just as much as other games based on "history" have done.

I think it'll be an interesting to see just who hates the idea of the game. Every game has potential, let's see if this game will actually be released first, let alone good.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm